[RinG]

I’m just scrolling through Amazon on my iPad, looking at some book pages, and I’m not seeing the bar of also boughts at all. Under the product page there are about 4 books listed with the words ‘what items to customers buy after buying this item’, but they’re much smaller covers than they used to be.

At the same time, I’m seeing 2 rows of sponsored products.

Could just be on my iPad, I’m not at my computer to check there, but even so, it’s concerning, since I do most of my purchasing on my iPad! Looks almost like organic visibility is being replaced with paid visibility?

 

[RinG]

Cleared everything and rebooted, and I’m still seeing the same thing. On my phone as well. Admittedly it doesn’t look as bad on my phone, but it’s still 4 alsoboughts instead of the usual scrolling bar.

If it’s a change, it just happened, because I was seeing the bar earlier today.

 

[Lydniz]

I've been seeing it for a while on my phone, and it's been discussed here before. Not to start a 'sky is falling' rumour, but I suspect Amazon are experimenting with no alsoboughts.

 

[Lydniz]

The alsoboughts are useful for us, certainly, but if this is what they are testing, I can see why it might make sense. Presumably they want to find out whether the increased amount authors would need to spend on AMS ads would outweigh the sell-through they get from alsoboughts. I can even see a situation where they might make authors pay to show the actual alsoboughts on the page.

ETA: this is pure speculation, by the way.

 

[RinG]

I’m not seeing it on my computer, so it appears to be a mobile only thing.

To be honest, as a customer, it really reduces the usefulness of their site. I’ve used the also boughts a lot when choosing items in the past, and I certainly don’t trust the sponsored products anywhere near as much. But perhaps, as someone with a better knowledge of how it works, I’m not your average customer?

 

[C. Gold]

Eww, I use Also Boughts as a reader to find new things to buy all the time.

 

[T E Scott Writer]

On my phone I see a column of three also boughts, but two full rows of sponsored products.  Definitely amazon pushing authors more and more towards ams.

 

[101569]

I haven't ever bought a book from an ad. I just about solely use also boughts. That will make it harder for people to find books that they like.

As a buyer i don't trust ads. The other day i was looking at some clean and wholesome books because that might be one of my main categories and more than half of the ads were for erotica or erotic romances. How would that help a buyer pick a book?

 

[The one with all the big dresses on the covers]

I’ve been seeing it consistently on my phone for a bit over a week but not on the computer. Since not everyone is seeing it, I’ve been assuming it’s one of those weird page changes that crop up every now and then and always seem to disappear again at some point. I do think it would be strange for Amazon to get rid of also-boughts as lots of readers use them (I know I did before I was an author) and I believe they’re also tied in with their recommendation algos which I assume Amazon have invested considerable resources into.

 

[Lydniz]

I do think it would be strange for Amazon to get rid of also-boughts as lots of readers use them (I know I did before I was an author) and I believe they're also tied in with their recommendation algos which I assume Amazon have invested considerable resources into.

I think it would be strange too, but I suppose from their point of view there's no harm in trying a little experiment.

 

[Used To Be BH]

I'm still seeing also-boughts on my computer.

I suggest a wait-and-see attitude. We have seen some undesirable experiments that quickly faded away.

I could be wrong, but I can't see the second sponsored product row lasting, either, though it's been there for a while now. How many customers are really going to spend time clicking through multiple rows of ads in two separate carousels? Amazon only gets paid for clicks, after all. At a certain point, one would expect that cramming more and more ads onto a page would hit a point of diminishing returns.

 

[Tulonsae]

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018. I do not agree to the terms.

 

[Becca Mills]

FWIW, I am still seeing the normal spread of also-boughts on the Android app.

Getting rid of also-boughts sounds like a terrible idea to me. I mean, sponsored books show what authors hope shoppers of a particular book will want to read, but also-boughts show what they actually do read. Even just from Amazon's perspective, losing the latter seems crazy to me. The networking of mutually appealing books is one of the few advantages online book shopping offers over brick-and-mortar browsing.

 

[Carol (was Dara)]

Also boughts are the main way I find books on Amazon, so I hope this is just a temporary glitch. Sponsored products aren't useful to me as a shopper because they're not tailored enough to my tastes. The short of it is that I trust Amazon's algorithms more than I trust random advertisers, and Amazon surely knows that.

 

[MmmmmPie]

YIKES! Bumping this because I'm seeing this on my PC, too.

Just browsed through a few romance book listings, and the "also boughts" are gone. Where the "also boughts" used to be, they have that little blurb "What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?" where it lists four books with tiny icons. And below that, they have two rows of sponsored ads.

It's almost like Amazon is dead-set on ruining the book-shopping experience. This is how I find my books to read. I don't care what's sponsored.

And as an author, it's just one reason that I'm glad I recently decided to go wide. Amazon is slowly but surely becoming just another ad-cluttered train-wreck.

 

[Dpock]

I'm seeing ABs on all the books I checked (PC/Google Chrome Incognito).

 

[MmmmmPie]

How about the top sellers in these categories?

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-New-Adult-College-Romance/zgbs/digital-text/6487838011/ref=zg_bs_nav_kstore_3_158566011

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Romance/zgbs/digital-text/158566011/ref=zg_bs_unv_kstore_3_6487838011_1

Clicking randomly on the top titles, all of them are missing the "also boughts", at least on my computer.

I'm using a PC, and it shows up the same in Chrome and in Firefox.

 

[Victoria Wright]

How about the top sellers in these categories?

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-New-Adult-College-Romance/zgbs/digital-text/6487838011/ref=zg_bs_nav_kstore_3_158566011

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Romance/zgbs/digital-text/158566011/ref=zg_bs_unv_kstore_3_6487838011_1

Clicking randomly on the top titles, all of them are missing the "also boughts", at least on my computer.

I'm using a PC, and it shows up the same in Chrome and in Firefox.

I'm seeing also boughts on the titles on those lists. I'm also seeing a new 'buy for others' feature that appears to have lengthened the sidebar on the right (where Amazon lists things like the buy now and 'send a free sample' links)--this appears to push into the space where also boughts usually populate, so I'm seeing a row of 5 also boughts with the usual carousal of X number of pages with more books listed.

If you click to expand the book description though, it pushes the also bought area down the page further and it expands back to the usual 7 results that I'm used to seeing. Number of results probably depends on screen resolution and such though, I bet it populates more on my 5k Mac (but am too lazy to check just now).

ETA: And just the one row of sponsored books below the also boughts + a second row of sponsored items over the reviews section.

 

[77071]

I'm now seeing a switch up with Also Boughts at the bottom of the page (where Items You Viewed used to be).  I'm in Chrome.


As well, the line above it is a carousel of "Also Viewed" and there are two lines of sponsored ads, one above Product Details, one below.


The line above Product Details has little attention-catching tags on the ads, "just release" or "recently released."  They're the size and style of "bestseller" category tags, but are gray instead of Amazon-orange.


Somebody's trying to make ads pay more!!


Well, as a reader I will always find Also Boughts more useful than ads.


There are also 4 books in a small size/style beneath my series carousel.  ("What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?")  Not sure how useful I'd find that.



*edit*
I am seeing some variety on different books, which seems to be related to how new they are  or possibly how well they're selling.  It looks like thing are changing over to this newer format, though.

It's irritating because I'm used to looking in one area for "Also Boughts" and now if I look there, it's all ads instead! 

 

[MmmmmPie]

I'm now seeing a switch up with Also Boughts at the bottom of the page (where Items You Viewed used to be). I'm in Chrome.

Ahhh. Yes. I now see the "also boughts." As you say, they're now at the very bottom of the bottom page. In fact, they were SO low on the page that they were invisible unless I scrolled to the very end of the page. No doubt, this is on purpose to make us give Amazon more ad money. Sheesh.

Interesting to see that it's not that way for everyone. Thanks to all who weighed in.